How Fabina got engaged
by artsoccer
Summary: 5 or 6 chapter story about Fabian trying to ask Nina to marry him. Strongly inspired by how hard it was for him to ask her to Prom/the number of times they got interrupted. 1 chapter will include interruption via Chosen One based shenanigan, because Nina is still the Chosen One, and because I can.
1. An Important Question

**I don't own House of Anubis**

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Fabian fiddled with the ring box in his pocket. He was nervous, very nervous, but he didn't think she'd say no, hoped she wouldn't say no. He bought the ring about two weeks ago while Nina was meeting with her writer's group. It was a simple ring, just a band of gold with a single ruby on it. The ruby on the ring was near identical to the gemstone on Nina's locket. When Fabian had seen it in the store, he was instantly reminded of the locket, and knowing how much the locket meant to his girlfriend, he'd purchased it on the spot. Well, first he had gotten the inside engraved with the phrase, "My Chosen One".

Fabian, kind of, wanted to ask his question, right there and then, get it out of the way, but he couldn't, not yet, but soon. He and Nina were currently wrapping up their visit with her grandmother. She had moved into a nursing home about two years ago. They were ending the visit in Evelyn's room.

"Good-bye, Gram, we'll be back soon." Nina promised as she hugged her grandmother.

"I know you will, dear." Evelyn responded, "But until then I'm sure Matthew Jones, in the room a few doors down will be more than happy to keep me company."

"Gram!" Nina blushed as she responded.

"See you soon, Evelyn" Fabian added as he also hugged the elderly woman.

With that, the two 23 year-olds left the room. They had just left the building when Fabian suddenly stopped and started patting himself down.

"Crap, I think I left my phone in her room." He claimed.

"Do you want me to go back with you to get it?" Nina asked.

"No! It's-it's fine, you just wait here, and I'll run back and get it. It-it'll be faster that way!"

Nina hesitated a moment, before acquiescing.

Upon returning to the room, but before entering, Fabian stopped. He fingered the ring box in his pocket one more time, took a deep breath to calm himself down, and opened the door.

"Fabian?" Evelyn remarked, "I know you said that you'd see me soon, but this isn't what I thought you meant."

"Nina thinks I forgot my phone, but-but there's something I needed to ask you in private." Fabian answered in a rush.

"What?"

"I-I want-wanted to," Fabian stuttered out as he removed the ring box from his pocket, "To ask your per-permission to-to marry your granddaughter."

"Yes, of course! Can I see the ring?"

"Yes! Sorry, yes you can see the ring."

He carried the ring over to her. She carefully removed it from the box and lightly examined it for a couple of seconds before placing it back into its box.

"I'd love to examine it further," Evelyn remarked, "But I think you better get going if you don't want Nina to come looking for you."

"Right!, yes, thank you!" Fabian placed the box back into his pocket and rushed back out of the door.

_Now,_ he thought to himself, _for the hard part. Actually asking Nina to marry him_.


	2. First Attempt

**I don't own HOA**

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"Nina," Fabian called from the living room of their apartment, "Are you ready yet, our reservation is in thirty minutes."

"Sorry," Nina replied from inside their bedroom, "But when Amber found out you were taking me on a date somewhere this fancy she insisted that she help me get dressed via video chat. She keeps changing her mind about which shoes I should wear."

"Sure blame someone who isn't even here."

"But it's Amber!"

"...Fair enough, well tell Amber to hurry up, or we'll be late!"

Fabian had made a reservation at one of the fanciest restaurants in the area a little over a month ago. Tonight would be an important anniversary for the couple, and Fabian felt it would be the ideal time to propose. He was dressed in a crisp three-piece suit, with a blue carnation lapel pin. Fabian was also holding a rose corsage to give to Nina.

After a couple of more minutes of waiting, Nina emerged from the bedroom. She was stunning. Her dress was lightly form fitting **[1]**, light blue and went to just below her knees. She was also wearing two inch black heels. Fabian's brain stopped working as he took in his girlfriend, and he accidentally dropped the corsage.

"You dropped something." Nina said, with a grin.

"What?"

"You dropped something." Nina pointed at the fallen corsage.

"Oh, right." Fabian bent over and picked it up. He was relieved to find it mostly undamaged. He held it out to Nina, "Here, this is for you."

"Thank you, it's very pretty."

"It has nothing on you."

Nina blushed, and asked "So, it was worth the wait?"

"What?"

"Waiting for me to finish getting ready, it was worth it?"

"Absolutely."

"So, our reservation?"

"Right, yes, we need to go now!"

Several minutes later found the two of them at the restaurant, enjoying their food, and each-other's company. While they were eating, a comfortable silence fell between them. After a few minutes, Nina broke the silence by asking about something that's was bothering her ever since Fabian told her what they were doing that night.

"Why are we here? Don't get me wrong, I'm really enjoying myself, but is there some special occasion that I'm forgetting about?"

"You don't remember? It's our five year anniversary of meeting each other again in college."

"It is! I completely forgot! I'm so sorry..."

"It's, it's okay, don't worry about." Fabian reassures her.

"Well, I think it's very sweet that you remembered, but I don't have anything for you to commemorate the date."

"I have you, and that's enough."

Five years ago, Nina and Fabian finally ran into each other as freshman in college. It was a total coincidence. Fabian definitely hadn't remembered a conversation he'd had with Nina where she said where she wanted to go to that college, confirmed it with her social media, applied to that college, and decided to go there after reconfirming that Nina was going there as well, via the internet, because by that time, despite the letter, he definitely wasn't over her yet **[2]**. No, it was a total coincidence that they met again in college. And Nina was surprisingly not completely creeped out when he confessed. Probably because she hadn't managed to move on either.

Fabian decided to make his move shortly after their waiter cleared the dinner plates away. Fabian stood up and began to get down on one knee. Before he could do anything else, there was a loud crash behind him. A few feet behind Fabian there was another waiter, who had been carrying out several plates of food for a different table, the waiter had missed the fact that the edge of a rug was up and had tripped over it. The waiter had fallen to his knees and dropped the plates. Ceramic shards and the remains of multiple dishes surrounded him. This drew the attention of the entire establishment, and several of the patrons began clapping.

Fabian went back into his seat, leaving the ring box in his pocket, admitting defeat for the night, knowing the moment was lost.

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**[1] Is this even a viable way to describe a dress. I only wear them at gun point. I also only wear pant-suits under duress.**

**[2] I do not want to hear damn thing about the Touchstone of Ra.**


	3. If at First You Don't Succeed

**I don't own HOA**

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A little over a week had passed since their five year anniversary of meeting each-other again. It was unseasonably warm for a Mid-November night. Fabian discovered this as he carried the trash to the apartment complex dumpster. Looking up, he found the sky to be clear. However, because of light pollution, there was only a limited number of stars out. A shame really, it could have been a perfect night for stargazing otherwise. Fabian mused that stargazing would have been a suitably romantic option for trying to propose again. Then he remembered something, and he got an idea. He ran back to their apartment, eager to share (most) of his new plan with Nina. She was startled when Fabian burst into the apartment, slightly out of breath.

"Let's go stargazing," he paused to breath, "Like right now!"

"What, why?" Nina was confused.

"It's actually fairly nice *breaths* out right now, and the sky is really clear!"

"What about the light pollution?"

"That's why we're going to that park, you know the one that's about 20 minutes away from town?"

"Why are you so anxious to go stargazing tonight?"

"It'd seem like a shame to waste the seemingly perfect weather, plus the sky is supposed to be clearer this time of year and also, spontaneous date? Maybe?"

Nina chuckled a little before agreeing.

A half-hour later found the couple in the park. They were lying down, next to each other, on the damp grass. They were holding hands and staring up at the dark speckled expanse of the sky.

"This is nice," Nina commented. She tilted her head towards Fabian and grinned. "I'm glad you talked me into doing this."

Fabian smiled back at her and lightly squeezed her hand. "So am I."

They lay there for several more minutes. Their companionable silence was only disturbed by the light whisper of the wind through the trees and the occasional cry of the local wildlife. This was interrupted when they spotted a shooting star.

"Quick," Fabian said, "Make a wish."

"Okay"

"...So, what did you wish for?"

"Not telling."

"Please?"

"I want it to come true!"

"Fine."

They both laughed.

A couple of minutes later, some clouds started to obscure the sky. It was also getting colder the entire time they had been out there, so they decided that it was high time for them to leave. Nina pulled herself up off of the cold ground first. She grunted a little when she did so. She then reached down to offer Fabian her hand to help him up. He rolls his eyes, but takes her hand all the same. Once they are both back on their feet, Nina starts to head back towards their car.

"Nina, wait." Fabian requested.

"Why?"

"There's, there's something I wanted to ask you before we left."

"Sure, ask away." Nina grinned as she turned around to face her boyfriend.

The grin only grew as he started to get down on one knee. Fabian reached into his inner coat pocket to retrieve the ring box. But, before he could say anything else, it started to rain. The rain was sudden, hard and freezing. All thoughts of the potential proposal were abandoned in favor getting back to their car as quickly as possible.

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**I'm feeling kind of disappointing in my writing quality for this work. I'm willing to chalk it up to not creatively writing for basically a year, but it still bothers me a bit. Meh. I also put so much effort just trying to figure out how to spell the word chalk for this author's note, and then checking if the expression was "chock it up" or "chalk it up". Also the word "chalk" no longer looks like a word to me right now.**

**I wrote this author's note/stream of consciousness when I first finished the chapter. Several hours later I went back to proofread it before posting, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, I'm leaving it in, plus adding this bit. *Face palms***


	4. Strike Three

**I don't own HOA  
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A few more weeks had passed, and it was now December. Since the night in the park Fabian had yet to think up a new way to try to ask Nina to marry him. He toyed with the idea of waiting until Christmas to ask her. But that felt cliche to him**[1]**. Besides they would be spending Christmas with his family in England (Nina's gran had also been invited). And they were staying with his family, and he wanted the proposal to be a private moment between the two of them.

Fabian was pondering this dilemma towards the end of his shift. He worked at the local museum in the Egypt section. They were setting up for a private event to be hosted there after the normal hours that night. A rich donor was holding a party there, or something. Private after-hours events were relatively rare, but not unheard off. This was not the first time he'd ever had to help set up for one. Setting up for this particular party, however, gave Fabian the beginnings of an idea.

Nina was quite fond of Ancient Egyptian things. Something about being the Chosen One and having to deal with magical problems from Ancient Egypt probably had something to do with it; it is how he'd gotten into Ancient Egypt after all. Fabian knew she would probably love it if he could arrange for them to be there alone one evening while the museum was closed to the public. Fabian vowed to ask his boss about arranging it the next day. The Friday night before Christmas, two days before their plane to England, Fabian managed to get permission to bring Nina on a date to the museum after hours. Nina had been ecstatic when he'd told her about it.

Both Nina and Fabian dressed somewhat fancy for the museum date. He was in nice pants and a polo shirt. She was in a knee length skirt, leggings and a nice blouse.

Fabian gave Nina an impromptu tour as he led her around the museum. Nina would occasionally interject with comments if something they were looking at reminded her of someone or something they fought had in the past.  
...

"This is a relief detailing Set." Fabian said, "It was found in 1953 by Cyril Aldred."**[2]**

"Remember that time, about a year or so ago, that we had to stop the cult of Set from destroying the UN headquarters in New York?"

"I thought it was the cult of Apophis who we stopped from destroying the UN headquarters. Didn't we stop the Set nuts from setting fire to Vatican City?"

"We stopped some cult of some Egyptian Chaos deity from destroying the UN headquarters about a year ago. Don't remember who or how as far as the Vatican is concerned, just that we stopped them."  
...

"Over here is a full size painting of a pair of chaos demons."

"I hate having to fight those guys."

"Same"  
...

"We have a Senet board here."

"I think I kind of hate Senet, ever since the Senkarah and the mask hunt."

"...Didn't you once save the world by winning a game of Senet?"

"No... I played a game of Senet for the sake of the world, lost very badly, and the only reason the world still exists is because, while my opponent was laughing his head off at how badly I'd lost, I hit him with my staff. It was a very hard hit."

"Sorry for mentioning it?"  
...

Fabian finished the tour by showing Nina with some papyrus scrolls that described a little know Ancient Egyptian love story.

"That was a lovely story. I wonder if it was true." Nina commented when he finished.

"I have no idea. But whether or not their story is real doesn't mean that we can't start writing the next chapter of our own."

Fabian went down on one knee and reached into his pocket for the ring box. Nina had the biggest grin on her face as she watched him do this. Then she noticed one of the other artifacts glowing out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh, no" Nina groaned. "That can't be good."

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**[1] The facts that it's now June, and that the author is Jewish has very little- I mean everything to do with this decision. Also it feels too cliche.**

**[2] Looked up list of Egyptologists, he was third on Wikipedia's list. I know that he was English and that he would have been an adult and alive in 1953. That is it.**

****This took awhile because I was originally going to include the fight scene in this one, but between that, and newly discovered descriptive writing skills that only seem to exist for that part, it was becoming a lot longer then the other chapters, so I did my normal fade to black. But the fight scene should be up in a day or two. (It's been my favorite part to write, so far).****


	5. Fight Scene!

**So this is a lot later than I said it would be. But I have an excellent excuse, I'm lazy! (also I had two exams yesterday that I was studying for) I don't own HOA. This chapter, unfortunately is probably completely optional reading as far as the rest of this mini story is concerned.**

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She moved towards the the artifact. It was the full size depiction of two chaos demons. And they were starting to glow. The demons were about five feet tall and looked like the snake version of a minotaur. Scale covered with humanoid legs and arms, an undulating torso, and a cobra esk head that included slitted yellow eyes, a forked tongue, and fangs dripping with venom.

"Why does this have to happen now!" Fabian complained, as he stood up and walked over to his girlfriend.

"How about we not get killed by the demons now, and figure out why after!"

Nina was standing about five feet in front of the painting with Fabian just behind her, but slightly off to her right as the outline of the demons glowed a lime green. Over the course of a few seconds the brightness increased. As it started to become painful to look at, the demons emerged from the image. Going from 2D to 3D in a matter of seconds.

"Good plan. What do you have on you weapons wise? Because I've just got a pocket knife on me. I left my wand at the apartment. I didn't thing I'd need it."

"I also didn't thing I'd be needing my staff. So I left that too! ...I can summon that knife Anubis gave me. It should be bigger than your pocket knife, and is slightly magical!"

As she said this, Nina summoned the knife to her left hand. It was a Bowie style knife with a six inch long, blackened steel blade with a clip point, a bronze guard, and a jackal head shaped pommel with red glowing eyes. She held it in an ice pick grip with the sharp edge facing outward. Fabian grabbed his pocket knife and opened it in his right hand. It was two and a half inches long with a drop point and a polished steel blade. Fabian held his knife with a saber grip.

The moment the demons became fully corporeal they lunged for the Chosen One. She reacted by moving her body out of the way of the one on her right while simultaneously meeting the other one's lunge with a slash to the face.

Heart pounding, Fabian went in for a thrust on the one Nina dodged. Despite the scales he managed to nick it in the arm. He failed to completely block the retaliatory punch to the face. Adrenaline kept him from feeling the pain, but the hit still rattled him. He took a step back to gain a little space to refocus.

The demon Nina was fighting stabbed her with a dagger. The moment she noticed, Nina dropped her knife to grab its wrist with both hands. She then turned around and dragged the wrist with her and broke its arm over her shoulder. Grabbing the dagger at the demon released it, Nina turned back around and used it to stab the demon in the heart. As she did so it punched her in the jaw before dying and crumpling into dust. The punch was hard enough to make Nina black out for a moment.

The other demon immediately moved in, to close the distance Fabian had created. As it did so, he kicked it in the knee. It went backwards with a loud crack. The demon collapsed to the ground in pain. He quickly moved in to finish it off with his pocket knife. Fabian thrust it in, hard, through the scales, just puncturing the heart. The pain from its knee kept it from effectively retaliating before it too died and crumpled into dust.

Fabian stood up and put away his pocket knife. He went over to Nina who was retrieving her knife from where she'd dropped it. When she straightened up he noticed a growing patch of red on her blouse.

"You're bleeding!"

Nina looked down and pressed her hand to her stomach, "I hadn't even noticed. I guess the adrenaline hasn't worn off yet. He must have gotten me a bit with that stab after all."

"We should get to a hospital."

"I think I still managed to stop it from getting too deep. We can probably just patch me up at ho- OW!" Nina clutched harder at her stomach, "Adrenaline's wearing off now."

A few hours, far too much paperwork, one emergency room, a couple of stitches later, and some painkillers later found Nina resting on their couch with a doctor's permission to fly to England in a couple of days as planned. Explaining his black eye and her purple chin to their family a couple of days later was fun.

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**Fun fact, the move Nina did to catch the stab and break the demon's arm was taught to me in my self-defense class, also learned that if you get into a knife fight/a fight with at least one knife, you're going to get stabbed all you can do is minimize the damage (which she did) and try to end it in your favor. I also learned that since knees only bend only way, if you kick one, there's lie a 75% chance of ending the fight right then and there.**


	6. Screw It

**I know this took forever, but I've finally finished it. Disclaimer, I don't own House of Anubis. May or may not add to your amusement if you re-watch the season one finale/Fabian's attempts to ask Nina to prom. That/those scenes inspired this last scene/the entire fic.**

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A couple of more weeks or so had passed since the holidays. The hole that the engagement ring was burning in Fabian's pocket was just getting larger and larger. He was sure by now that Nina was just waiting for him to actually finish asking her. He was out of ideas about how to make it special, and paranoid (perhaps rightfully so) about getting interrupted again.

While trying to ignore his predicament, he was watching some soap opera with Nina. Her head was resting on his shoulder and he had his arm wrapped around her. One of the show's couples were on a date. Towards the end of the date the male lead got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend. As she was saying yes, Fabian thought _Screw it_. He paused the show and got up from the couch.

"Fabian," Nina asked, "what are you doing? You were comfy."

In lieu of a direct response he knelled in front of her and produced the ring.

"Nina," he began, "Will you..."

"Yes!" She cut him off. "Yes, yes!"

"But I didn't even get to finish asking! How can you be sure that I was going to ask what you think I was?"

"...Then ask me quickly before an earthquake or more demons or something interrupts us again!"

"Nina, will you marry me?"

"Yes"

Nina rushed over to him and pulled him into a passionate kiss before he even had a chance to give her the ring. It fell to the ground with a clatter a second later. They broke apart at the sound. They both chuckled a little when they realized what had caused it. Fabian bent down to retrieve the ring. After he found it, he rejoined Nina on the couch.

"This is for you." He said as he gave it to her.

"It's beautiful."

"It's also engraved on the inside."

Nina's grin only grew as she read the engraving.

"I love it."

"I'm glad." Fabian replied as he took the ring and placed it on her finger.

"We're officially engaged now, then." Nina commented.

"Yes, yes we are."

"It occurs to me that there are certain bedroom activities that I've yet to do with you, as my fiance."

"Then what are we still siting out here for?"

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**I was going to have Fabian give a long(ish) romantic speech. He was going to "complain" that he didn't get to give it when he picked the ring off of the floor. Nina was going to ask that he give it anyway. Then I failed to write a speech that I felt was heartfelt, romantic, and not completely cringy. So, no big romantic speech, but they're finally engaged, and I'm finally done trying to write a romance story.**


End file.
